The President's Special Message. 




SPEECH 



f.t 



OF 



♦..-'-'" 



HON. CHARLES CASE, OF INDIANA. 



Delivered in the U. S. House of Representatives, March 11, 1858. 



Mr. Chairman: The argument in 
favor of the admission of Kansas, under 
the Lecompton Constitution, that has 
had the most extensive circulation 
throughout the country, and which, 
from the official position and prestige of 
its author, has attracted, and will yet 
attract, most attention, is that which 
the President sent us on the 2d ultimo. 
The local press has everywhere pub- 
lished it ; and it is being scattered 
broadcast by the Administration party, 
as the latest gospel of Democracy. I 
propose, therefore, to use my hour in 
examining some of its propositions and 
sentiments. When that document was 
read by the Clerk, and when its start- 
ling statements and bitter charges were 
so heartily and promptly endorsed by 
one of my colleagues, [Mr. Hughes,] 
I felt a desire, for the first time, to 
speak — to say something of a State 
paper so extraordinary in its phraseol- 
ogy, assertions, and conclusions. Rising 
at this late period to gratify that desire, 
it is proper to say that some of the re- 
marks I have to submit were prepared 
soon after the delivery of that message. 
In the mean time, it has been quite 
boldly discussed here and in the other 
branch of Congress; and many of the 
ideas which lie directly in my path have 
been better expressed by others. Some 
of them will bear repetition, and for the 
rest, I have no apology beyond this ex- 
planation. 

Though addressing this body for the 



first time, it will hardly be necessary ia 
advance to multiply words in defining 
my position. The subject will give suf- 
ficient opportunity to indicate it. Let 
me only premise that, while I was elect- 
ed to a seat in this House as a Repub- 
lican — charged, too, by political adver- 
saries with being a very black one — 
while I cling to the leading tenets of 
that party as tenaciously as ever, and 
am ready, in my poor way, at all proper 
times to defend them, yet I propose to- 
day to say but little on the distracting 
subject of Slavery — not that the able 
and earnest vindications of that institu- 
tion, to which I have listened here, have 
in the least shaken old and deep convic- 
tions. In its essential characteristics 
I can see nothing to love or admire — 
much, very much, to abhor and con- 
demn. I ought, perhaps, to add, that 
my intense objection is to the principle 
of the institution ; to its inherent in- 
justice, which no kindness on the part 
of the master can compensate, though 
such kindness may be, and probably is, 
quite generally practiced; for I have 
never supposed our Southern brethren 
to be sinners above all others. I dis- 
miss this thought without further com- 
ment, content that for the present my 
remarks shall be confined to the rights 
of freemen, and the manner in which 
they are treated,, and proposed to be 
treated, by the President ; alluding only 
incidentally and necessarily, if at all, to 
the rights or interests of any other cla«s. 



The subject demands great plainness of 
speech ; and that demand is a sufficient 
apology lor its use. The President lias 
set the example. He has not been 
choice in his wonls, or mealy-mouthed 
in his opinions. Those words and opin- 
ions are immodiatoly in my way. I 
cannot avoid tliem if I would; though 
he is old, and I am young. 

Towards the close of his message, the 
Presiilent tiirows out a suggestion upon 
which he li:id done well to liavo acted, if 
he would have it control the action of 
others. Ho tells us, as in his annual 
communication, that "already have the 
aflairs of Kansas engrossed an undue 
proportion of the public attention." Ah ! 
have they? Why did not this occur to 
him at the outset, and, as has been well 
suggested by others, induce him to send 
us the Leenmpton Constitution, as he 
did that of Minnesota, without lengthy 
comments uf his, instead of accompany- 
ing it with a long argument, every sen- 
tence of which is provocative of discus- 
sion, and acrimonious discussion too? 
Not thus will ho succeed in calming the 
troubled political sea; not thus can he 
brush away " the dark and ominous 
cloud"*" to his vision "impending over 
the Union." Sir, when from his high 
position he assumes to pass judgment 
upon ten thousand free citizens of Kan- 
sas, pronouncing them rebels, insurrec- 
tionists, and traitors, when he substan- 
tiall}' tells us that, by their conduct, 
they have forfeited all right to complain, 
that though the burden of their wrongs 
be never so heavy wc must not hear 
them groan, he should remember that 
these men are our brethren and kinsfolk, 
that they have sympathizing friends in 
every free State certainly, jirobably in 
every State, of this Confederacy; that 
but a litlK; time ago they were a ])art of 
the seventeen millions of Northern free- 
men, that every Congressional district in 
the free North has contributed its fifties 
and its hundreds to the population of 
Kansas ; and of these, ninety-nine of 
every hundred are now standing and act- 
ing with those whom he denominates 
usurpers and rebids. 

Besides, sir, the President is probably 



familiar with the political platforms of 
lb5l). It will be recollected that he 
yielded his personal identity to the so- 
licitations of patriotic friends, and was 
no longer James Buchanan, but the im- 
personation of one of them. He doubt- 
less studied the others, and can hardly 
have forgotten that the Topeka Consti- 
tution and movement, which he asserts 
to have been, from the first, the ultima- 
tum of liis Kansas rebels, received the 
endorsement of the Republican organiza- 
tion of that year. The work of a Con- 
vention elected by a po])ular vote in its 
favor larger than the aggregate of that 
cast for the members of the late Le- 
compton Convention, and ratified by a 
vote nearly or quite as large, they deem- 
ed it then the voice of the people, which 
Congress should heed. When, therefore, 
he brands that measure as rebellious and 
treasonable, he indirectly makes every 
Republican of that year an abettor of 
these monstrous crimes. He has studied 
American character to little purpose, if he 
has not learned that such charges, from 
any quarter, must provoke severe scru- 
tiny and criticism. Rebellion, charged 
against American citizens, grates harsh- 
ly on American cars, and he must not 
complain if facts and precedents are cx- 
amini^l to determine its justice and pro- 
priety. 

My colleague [xMr. Hughks] told us 
that " the President had struck the key 
note of all this difliculty," and that was 
^'"rebellion! rkukllion ! " He might 
have added that, having struck it, he 
adhered to it with marvellous steadiness. 
There were no half notes, nor even 
thirds or fifths, in the whole strain. Let 
us cull some of the mclliiluous sounds 
which still linger on the car — first paus- 
ing a moment to inquire to whom they 
are applied. They are designated in 
the message, beyond a pcradventure, by 
names and localities. 'I'hey are called 
Republicans andAbolitionists; the local- 
ities are " the towns, cities, or counties, 
where the Republican party have a ma- 
jority," or "Lawrence, the hot-bed of. 
all the abolition movements in the Ter- 
ritory." The persons accused are " the 
great mass of the Republican party of 



the Territory." True, these designa- 
tions occur in the more ancient dis- 
patches of Governor Walker — dispatches 
sent off while he was Saul instead of 
Paul — before the scales had fallen from 
'his eyes ; but the President incorporates 
them in his message, and makes their 
sentiments his own. Who does not 
know that the men thus designated are 
none other than the Free State party of 
Kansas, very few of them being Aboli- 
tionists ; many of them not claiming to 
be Republicans, but old-fashioned Dem- 
ocrats rather, who went there to carry 
out what they thought to be " the true 
intent and meaning " of the organic law, 
but found themselves of necessity siding 
with the party of Freedom in that Ter- 
ritory, and have therefore been dubbed 
Republicans and Abolitionists by the 
loyalists there and elsewhere. 

How are these men and their acts 
characterized in the message'? Whj'', 
sii% as having from the first "endeavor- 
ed, by force and usurpation, to over- 
throw the Government established by 
Congress," as " subverters of Govern- 
ment," " defying Government," and 
" setting up a revolutionary Govern- 
ment." They are spoken of as insur- 
gents, as insurrectionary, rebellious; 
and to those deeds of shame, all cul- 
minating in the Topeka movement, we 
are told they have adhered "with trea- 
sonable pertinacity." These are speci- 
mens, only, of the choice literature of 
the Executive. How many times some 
of these adjective phrases occur in the 
message, I cannot say. They consti- 
tute its warp and woof; and, to return 
to the figure of my colleague, are but 
the same key note, or its octaves above 
and below. What a harmony of soft 
words, if not of soft music ! 

While the tones of its lofty patriotism 
and heaven-born charity yet captivate 
the sense, while friends are praising its 
signal ability and opponents smarting 
under its benevolent castigations, it is 
grievous to be compelled to say, in 
truth, that the production is scarcely 
original. Key note and all, it is little 
more than a recast of an old chant — of 
a tune sang many years ago, perhaps 



before Yankee Doodle had become a 
national air. Painful as the task may 
be, and precious as my time certainly 
is, I must take occasion briefly to dem- 
onstrate this, both as a matter of jus- 
tice to the dead, and that the living may 
see which way the Administration is 
drifting. The data may also be useful 
to the friends of the President else- 
where. His message has been assailed 
by the opposition press, as being without 
parallel or precedent in the past. To 
his friends throughout the country it 
must be interesting to learn that in 
sentiment it is not new to American his- 
tory. Republicans are prone to refer to 
early writings to sustain their doctrines, 
to show that they were those of the 
fathers ; that even their territorial poli- 
cy had its origin in a Jeffersonion ordi- 
nance older than the Constitution. And 
while the public heart venerates the 
deeds and the patriotism of those great 
men, they will not appeal in vain to the 
voice which comes to them through the 
vista of years, and assures them they 
are right. It must please the friends 
of the Administration (not here, but in 
the rural districts) to learn that they, 
too, can appeal to writings older than 
the present Government to vindicate the 
language of this remarkable State pa- 
per — to show that in tone, argument, 
and phrases, it has its prototype in the 
productions of that past generation 
whose law-loving spirit the President so 
beautifully commends. 

This earlier document I have before 
me. It is an unpretending book, occu- 
pies but little space, and has probably 
attracted little attention among the sixty 
thousand volumes of your. Congressional 
Library. Certainly it is a kind of litera- 
ture to which Republicans are not par- 
tial, and of which Democrats, in other 
days, were not specially fond. It was 
written in 1774. That, like the present, 
was a time of excitement. Then, as 
now, there was a controversy between 
Governors and governed ; then, as now, 
a party which asserted the Governors 
ever right, the governed ever wrong. 
To this party the author seems to have 
belonged. His name does not appear in 



print, but some hand (I had almost i 
said an unkind one) has pencilled it on 
the titlepage ; it shall not escape my 
lips. He was undoubtedly a Tory ; but 
he has gone to his grave, and no de- 
scendant of his, if he has one, would 
thank me for proving, or intimating, 
tliis work to be the deed of his ancestor. 
It is entitled, " A Friendly Address to 
all Reasonable Americans on the sub- 
ject of our Political Confusions, &c.," 
and seems to have been published for 
purchasers, at the moderate price of 
one shilling sterling. A few extracts 
from both will show the striking resem- 
blances between the ancient book and 
the modem message. I begin with the 
latter. The President says : 

'•A great delusion seems to pervade the public 
mind in relation to the condition of parties in 
Kansas. This arises from the difliculty of indu- 
cing the American people to realize the fact that 
any portion of them should bein astateof rebellion 
against the (Jovernment under which they live. 
When we 6i)cak of the affairs of Kansas, we are 
apt to refer merely to the existence of two violent 
political parties in that Territory, divided on the 
question of Slavery, just as we speak of such par- 
ties in the States. This ])resents no adequate 
idea of the true state of the case. The dividing 
line is not between two political parties, botii 
acknowledging the lawful existence of the Gov- 
ernment, but between those who are loyal to this 
(/ovcrnment and those who have endeavored to 
destroy its existence by force and by usurpation — 
between those who sustain and tliose who have 
done all in their power to overthrow the Terri- 
torial Government established by Congress. This 
Government tiicy would long since have sub- 
verted, had it not been protected from their as- 
saults by the troops of the United States. Such 
has been the condition of affairs since my in- 
auguration. Ever since that period, a large por- 
tion of the people of Kansas have been in a stale of 
rebellion against the (lovernmcnt, with a military 
leader at their head of a most turbulent and dan- 
gerous character. Thcyhavcneveracknowledgcd, 
but have constantly renounced and defied, the 
Government to which they own allegiance, and 
have been all the time in a state of resistance 
against its authority. They have all the time 
been endeavoring to subvert it, and to establish 
a revolutionary (Jovernment, under the so-called 
Topcka Constitution, in its steail. Even at this 
very moment, the Topeka Legislature arc in ses- 
sion. " 

Similar in sentiment is the extract 
from one of the dispatches of Governor 
Walker, adopted by the President, which 
says : 

"Lavrrcncc is the hot-bod of all the Abolition 
morements ia this Territory. It ia the town es- 



tablished by the Abolition societies of the East'; 
and, whilst there are resjiectable people there, it 
is filled by a considerable number of mercenaries, 
who are \»\\d by Abolition societies to perpetuate 
and diffuse agitation throughout Kansas, and 
prevent a peaceful settlement of this question. 
Having failed in inducing their own so-called 
Topeka State Legislature to organize this insur- 
rection, Lawrence has commenced it herself; and 
if not arrested, the rebellion will extend through- 
out the Territory. And again: in order to send 
this communication immediately by mail, I must 
close by assuring you that the spirit of rebellion 
pervades the great mass of the Republican party 
of this Territory, instigated, as I entertain no 
iloubt they are, by Eastern societies, having in 
view results most disastrous to the Government 
and to the Union." 

In the same strain are the two follow- 
ing key-note extracts : 

"The truth is, that up till the present moment, 
the enemies of the existing (lovernmcnt still ad- 
here to their Topeka revolutionary Constitution 
and Government. 

"This Topeka Government, adhered to with 
such treasonable pertinacity, is a Government in 
direct opposition to the existing Government 
prescribed and recognised by Congress." 

Observe, sir, the grave charges and 
causes of complaint : *' regular authority 
defied and denied;" loyalty at a dis- 
count, leaning on paid soldiery for sup- 
port ; particular places in open revolt, 
and by their hot-bed movements striving 
to make the dire disturbance universal ; 
legal officials repudiated, and legislators, 
Governors, even a turbulent and dan- 
gerous military leader of their own choice 
set up in their stead ! And yet the peo- 
ple all unconscious of an existing con- 
tinued rebellion. The picture is graph- 
ically drawn, but lacks one great merit, 
originality, as a few extracts from the 
book before mc will clearly prove. In 
the deeds and designs of his country- 
men eighty-four years ago, the author 
saw and painted the same rank mischief 
and treason that constitute the start- 
ling features of the modern drawing. 
He says : 

" Friend f, countrymen, and fillow-suhjecla: Let 
mo entreat you to rouse up at last from your 
slumber, and to open your eyes to the danger 
that surrounds you — the danger of being hurried 
into a state of rebellion before you are aware of 
it, and of suffering all that resentment which a 
migiity nation can discharge on a defenceless peo- 
ple. * » » If you persist in the stei)3 which 
many of you have taken, the time cannot be dis- 
tant in which both you and they will be Icgallj' 
proclaimed rebels and traitors — thej as princi« 



pals, you as their abettors; and especially if you 
go on to encourage the New England fanatics to 
attack the King's troops ! " 

Again lie says : 

"To this wretched and accursed state of rebel- 
lion, the principles that have been propagated, 
and several steps that have been taken in the 
American Colonies, directly tend. Nay, a rebel- 
lion is evidently commenced in New England, in 
the county of Suffolk, without room for retreat- 
ing; the inhabitants of that large and populous 
county have openly bid defiance to the united 
authority of the King, Lords, and Commons, in 
Parliament assembled; they have most contempt- 
uously rejected the regulations of their courts of 
justice, &c., established by Parliament; and not 
only.so, but they have set up in direct opposition 
to their authority a Government of their own. 
In the spiritof outrageous licentiousness they have 
compelled, by brutal violence, those respectable 
gentlemen that held commissions under the 
Crown to resign them, in forms of their own in- 
diting, and to relinquish their stations, and .they 
have appointed others of the same factious and 
turbulent disposition with themselves to fill their 
places, till their long-projected Republic shall be 
settled; which is the glorious object. They have 
already, if we may believe credible information, 
marked out the inland town of Worcester for the 
seat of this Republic; they are now collecting 
artillery for its defence, and some of them have 
nominated the man who is to be their Protector. 
Whether this be so or not, it appears from au- 
thentic intelligence from Boston, that they have 
done as bad. For the Selectmen and Committee 
of Correspondence have proclaimed the King's 
troops to be public enemies." 

Quoting from a dispatch of the King's 
Governor, he makes the charge against 
these Bostonians yet more explicit ; for 
Boston then, and that New England re- 
gion, like Lawrence now backed by its 
New England aid, seems to have been 
the hot-bed of sedition. Plymouth Rock 
is, I believe, somewhere in that vicinity, 
and it seems that the pernicious princi- 
ples of the Pilgrim Fathers were even 
then working out legitimate fruits 1 The 
Governor (not Mr. Buchanan's, but the 
King's) says : 

"They have given orders to prevent all sup- 
plies for English troops; straw purchased for 
their use is burnt, vessels with bricks sunk, carts 
with wood overturned, and all this is not the ef- 
fect of rash tumult, but of evident system." 

Why, sir, you can scarcely find in the 
history of Lawrence such systematic 
lawlessness as this, unless in that spon- 
taneous municipal organization that dem- 
onstrated its contempt for the authori- 
ties, in the wilful removal of sundry dead 
animals from the streets of that town, 



and rendered the presence of United 
States troops necessary to preserve or- 
der ! Our author adds : 

"Now, these rebellious republicans, these hair- 
brained fanatics, as mad and distracted as the 
Anabaptists of Munster, are the people whom the 
American Colonies wish to support." 

Let full justice be done to both pro- 
ductions. In the message we are in- 
formed that there " are respectable peo- 
ple in Lawrence." So, in the elder 
author, we learn that even in Boston 
there were " many innocent and respect- 
able persons — many more than was com- 
monly imagined." 

The comparisons made sufficiently in- 
dicate the falnily resemblances ; but 
there are others equally striking and 
suggestive. More than once we are told 
in the message, in reference to the Le- 
compton Convention and its results, that 
if that body did not represent the senti- 
ment of the Territory, if its doings were 
an outrage upon the wishes of the peo- 
ple, it was their own fault ; that by their 
votes they should have sent to that body 
different men — men representing their 
views — and having failed (refused, if you 
please) to do so, "it is not for them to 
complain that their rights have been vio- 
lated." What an argument, sir, for a 
statesman and moralist ! The plain 
English of it, as we must apply it, is 
this : admit that this Constitution does 
violate the people's rights : they com- 
mitted the first wrong, and that will ex- 
cuse ours. We may therefore thrust 
it down their throats without even ask- 
ing them how they relish the prescrip- 
tion. When and where did the President 
learn that in politics, more than else- 
where, one wrong justifies another? Ah ! 
I forget myself; he might have learned 
it in the very book before me. 

In those early days, as we all know, 
the legislation of the parent Government 
interfered with the tea drinking of the 
Colonies — imposing a tax on that " do- 
mestic institution.^^ Then arose a con- 
test among the people — the rebellious 
asserting that they should have a voice 
in the making of laws that taxed them. 
Our author, ever loyal to those in power^ 
was, upon this grave question, true to 



the administration. He first denies the 
right claimed by the people, and then 
concludes his argument as follows : 

"Yet, notwithstnnding all this, they (the peo- 
ple of the Colonics) hftvc lately beeu told hy their 
&(^cnts, who hud it from the best mithority, that 
if liny chose to send over jicrsons to represent 
them in I'arnament, they Sihoiild he udiiiitted to 
Bents in the House. In rny opinion, they have 
done wisely in not accepting the oiler; but after 
refusing it. they surely hivve no reason to com- 
plain that they have no representatives in the 
Parliament that must govern them." 

Sir, if the work is good authority, the 
langua;^c of the message is vindicated by 
a precedent of respectable years. 

The analogies are by no means ex- 
hausted. Passing from the question of 
right, the Executive missive invites our 
attention to arguments of expediency. 
We are asked to consider the benefits that 
•will result to Kansas and the country from 
its immediate admission, and the disas- 
ters wliich may follow its rejection. In 
the catalogue of benefits to be assured 
by its admission, we have "domestic 
peace restored, and that fine Territory, 
hitherto torn by dissensions, rapidly in- 
creasing in population and wealth, and 
speedily realizing the blessings and com- 
forts which follow in tlie train of agri- 
cultural and mechanical industry."' 

The figures of the other and darker 
picture are not clearly brought out. We 
have dim images of " agitation renewed in 
a form more alarming than it has ever yet 
assumed," "people of sister States es- 
tranged from each other with more than 
former bitterness," and "consequences 
which no man can foretell," on a back- 
ground of "dark and ominous clouds 
impending, which, if Kansas is rejected, 
will become darker and more ominous 
than any which have yet threatened the 
Constitution and the Union." I shall 
not attetnpt to finish the picture, espe- 
cially when it is intimated that the back- 
ground may yet require a deeper shading. 
iJut our ancient author, in his "address 
to reasonable Americans," left neither 
of these sketches unfinished. He re- 
minded them that under British laws 
and i)rotection "they were already rich, 
' fr. m j)racticing at their ease thepeace- 

* ful arts of agriculture and commerce ; 

* and they had but to pursue the same 



* path, to flourish and prosper, till, in 
' process of time, they would excite 
' either the admiration or envy of 
' the whole world." Then, turning the 
canvas, he pointed to them "the dark- 
ness of a rising tempest," Avhile "the 
roar of distant thunder broke upon their 
ears." In bold relief stood out the 
frightful images of his grouping. The 
demon of discord rising to distract ; the 
dogs of war let loose ; brother fighting 
against brother ; the rebels vanquished, 
and treated accordingly ; their estates 
forfeited and confiscated; themselves 
handed over to the hands of the execu- 
tioner ; and " only the lower classes 
spared," to speak of the mercy of their 
conquerors ! 

All honor to those same reasonable 
Americans, for whom arguments of ad- 
vantage had no controlling charms ; pic- 
tures of disaster no restraining terrors ; 
whose steady and practical reply to all 
expediency men was that noble adage, 
" millions for defence, not one cent for 
tribute;" or that other immortal senti- 
ment, "give me liberty, or give me 
death!" 

In strange contrast with the reasoning 
just considered is the argument of insig- 
nificance to be found in the old work as 
well as in the new, the subjects discussed 
being diflferent, but the principle involved 
the same. In the former, sul)mission to 
British power was counselled, because 
the tax imposed was too insignificant to 
be ground of complaint, and because the 
people could themselves cure the evil, 
and yet be loyal to constituted authori- 
ties. The author says : 

"In what do you suffer? Why, it seems a duty 
of three j)cnce :i pound has been laid by I'arlia- 
inciit upon thi'ir teas expDrted to Ainerica; and 
we caiinol purchase the tea without Jiaying the 
duly. lUit, if liiis may be called a burden, so 
may the weight of an atou) on the shouhlers of a 
giant. Hesides, this burden may bo easily avoid- 
ed ; for we have no occasion to purchase the tea, 
anil unless we do purchase it, we are under no 
obligations to )>ay the duty." 

Sir, why did not this argument settle 
the confusions of ] 71 \ 1 Because, above 
ami beyond the insignificance of the tax 
denmnded, rose the eternal principle, that 
the peojjle's consent must be the basis 
of all laws to which they are subjected ; 



7 



and because trifling and insignificant vio- 
lations of it were then, as now, more 
dangerous to the public good than flagrant 
denials of its justice. The one, adopted, 
might become a precedent ; while the 
other, if successful, would be branded as 
tyranny. 

And yet, though the same principle is 
involved now as then, we are told in the 
message — 

" If Kansas is rejected, agitation more alarming 
than we have ever known will be revived ; and 
this from a cause more trifling and insignificant 
than has ever stirred the elements of a great peo- 
ple to commotion." 

What is the argument by which we 
are to be convinced on this point 1 Why, 
in substance, this : if the proposed Con- 
stitution does not accord with the popu- 
lar will of Kansas, we have only to drag 
her into the Union under it, and then the 
people can immediately help themselves ! 
Thus, we are told there is "only a dif- 
ference of time " between us. Granting 
the legal view to be sound, (and upon 
that I express no opinion now,) why do 
we not yield the point at once, and have 
done with this angry strife? Because 
thereby we would yield that undying 
principle which, in the eyes of our fathers, 
towered like a mountain peak above the 
trifling impost that violated it, and which 
must never, never be surrendered — the 
assent of the governed to laws, and above 
all, fundamental laws, to be imposed 
upon them. When that principle is in- 
volved, nothing which demands its aban- 
donment, or postponement for a single 
hour, is trifling or insignificant. 

One other characteristic of both docu- 
ments deserves a passing notice. It is 
the common stand-point from which they 
view and judge the actions of the author- 
ities on the one hand, and of the people 
on the other. Read the old book through, 
and fi-om beginning to end you can find 
in it no admission of any real wrong on the 
part of British power. The rulers were 
ever right, submission to their behests 
ever a duty ; the people were always 
wrong, their remonstrances unreasona- 
ble, their action "brutal violence and 
rebellion." So, sir, in the message, 
from its first line to its last, there is not 
an intimation that, in a solitary instance, 



pretended authorities or real ones have 
outraged public decency or private rights 
in Kansas ; not a word from which you 
can infer that there has been the slight- 
est excuse for the continued rebellion 
and pertinacious treason which is charged, 
without scruple, upon ten thousand free- 
men in that Territory. Like the Tory 
Avriter of 1774, the President sees no act 
of the authorities in Kansas to condemn, 
scarcely one act of its people to approve. 
I shall return to this feature of the mes- 
sage soon, and therefore dismiss it for 
the present. 

Enough, perhaps, has been said to 
show, not where the President did find, 
but where he might have found, " the 
key note " of his message — enough to 
remove all wonder that even Democrats 
are startled at the strain, and loth to 
keep time to the tune. And now, sir, I 
have done with comparisons between 
these extraordinary productions. As to 
the justice and propriety of the one, the 
public voice, if consulted, would give no 
uncertain sound. Let but an American 
come forward now, and thus speak of the 
deeds and men of eighty-four years ago, 
and he would be deafened with the hisses 
of the civilized world. Let us leave the 
author where we found him, sleeping in 
a political oblivion that perchance should 
not have been disturbed, while we return 
to the document of our own times, with 
the charitable prayer that similar errors 
may not ultimately be rewarded by a 
similar repose. 

Time fails me to notice many import- 
ant propositions of the message. I must 
be content with a hasty glance at one or 
two more. Here is one deserving atten- 
tion, not only for its indication of execu- 
tive partiality, but for its grave error as 
to the real issue to be settled. It is a 
sort of postscript to the argument of in- 
significance which has been considered, 
and shows' that, in the President's opin- 
ion, the struggle may not be so trifling 
to others as it is to the people of Kan- 
sas. He says : 

"In considering this question, it should never 
be forgotten that— in proportion to its insignifi- 
cance, let the decision be what it may, so far 
as it may affect the few thousand inhabitants of 
Kansas who have, from the beginning, resisted 



8 



the Constitution and the laws — for this vcg- rea- 
son the rejection of the Constitution will he so 
much the more keenly felt hy the people of four- 
teen of the States of this I'nion where Slavery is 
recognised under the Constitution of the United 
SUtes." 

Sir, docs the President imagine that 
Northern men are statues, that in the 
free States of this Union there will he 
no "keen feeling" on this question"? If 
our Southern hrethren may be so strenu- 
ous about a barren victory, may not we 
as strenuously decline to yield ? Sup- 
pose we reverse the argument, and say^ 
" in proportion to its insignificance, &,c. ; 
for this very reason the adoption of tliis 
Constitution will be so much the more 
keenly felt by the people of the sixteen 
States of this Union Avhere Slavery is 
not recognised." Is not the reasoning 
equally sound"? Yet he seems to be 
blissfully unconscious that the people of 
the North have any interest, or any right 
to be interested, in this matter. But on 
this I do not dwell. I wish rather to 
refer to a graver error, apparent in the 
passage last quoted, and more prominent 
still in other parts of the message. It 
is the assuinjjtion that this Constitution 
is to be rejected, if at all, because it 
tolerates a certain peculiar institution. 
In another place, you may remember, he 
speaks of the " disasters to result if we 
reject Kansas because Slavery remains 
in her Constitution." Now, sir, this 
assumption is sadly wrong. With me, 
and with many others, under the circum- 
stances, it would be a. sufficient reason 
for voting against the adoption of that 
Constitution, if there were no other. 
But the President must know, or should 
know, that in. this House there are those 
who arc earnestly opposed to its adop- 
tion, with whom the Slavery clause is of 
secondary or no importance ; and, sir, 
he ought to know, if he does not, that 
all over the land there are thousands of 
men — men who were his supporters a 
twelvemonth ago — who care little about 
Slavery, but who will look upon the ad- 
mission of Kansas undi-r this Constitu- 
tion as an outrage unjjarallek'd in all 
our past legislation. Does the Prt'sident 
•wish to ]>ut such men, holding seats 
here, and the thousands who sympathize 



with them elsewhere, in a false positiont 
Nor is this sentiment confined to those 
who were so lately of his political house- 
hold. For one, I am free to say, that if 
there were no question of Negro Slavery 
involved, I would never, by my vote, 
make that instrument the Constitution 
of Kansas ; because that involves a ques- 
tion to me equally important, whether 
white men shall be robbed of their rights. 
The free men of that Territory have cast 
it out as an unclean thing, and that is 
objection enough with me, without look- 
ing at the face of the paper. As an 
American citizen, and as a Republican, 
while I do not hold that Congress is 
bound to approve and adopt a Constitu- 
tion, rcgartiless of its provisions, because 
it embodies the people's will, I do hold 
that we should never force one upon 
them, for a single moment, which they 
have never approved, but have emphati- 
cally condemned. On this latter prop- 
osition I would not have supposed, six 
months ago, that there could be a differ- 
ence of opinion between men or parties. 
In this connection, I am reminded of 
another singular statement of the mes- 
sage. It is this : 

"The people of Kansas have, then, 'in their 
own way,' and in strict accordance with the or- 
f^anic act, framed a Constitution and State Gov- 
ernment; have submitted the all-important ques- 
tion of Slavery to the peojjle, and have elected a 
Governor, a nicmbtir to represent them in Con- 
gress, members of the Stale Legislature, and 
other State ofliccrs. They now ask admission 
into the Union under this Constitution, which is 
republican in its form." 

A brief prefix to this statement, with 
one slight omission, would have added 
vastly to its truthfulness. Had he com- 
menced by saying " a meager minority 
of the people of Kansas," and omitted 
the phrase " in strict accordance with 
the organic act," he would have mado 
a capital hit. Then it would have read, 
" a meager minority of the people of 
Kansas have framed a Constitution, and 
ask admission under it." Thus he would 
not have ignored the fact, then and now 
notorious in all the land, that only in 
the ]>revious month, and as the latest 
utterance of the ballot-boxes of that 
Territory, the ])eo]>lc' had almost unani- 
mously repudiated this Constitution. Of 



9 



that fact he must have had an unwaver- 
ing conviction when he penned his mes- 
sage, and yet who would suspect it from 
what he says'? I am aware of his ex- 
cuse, and will give it in his own words. 
He says, " I have yet received no official 
information of the result of this elec- 
tion." Quite likely; and on his own 
theory he probably never will ; for, in 
the same connection, just preceding this 
last quotation, he strongly intimates that 
in his judgment the whole proceeding 
was unofficial and unauthorized ; though 
he says " it was peaceably conducted 
under his instructions.^^ But is it so 
that when a man becomes President he 
loses his natural oi'gans — has only offi- 
cial eyes and official ears, and may not, 
by ordinary channels of information, 
learn, believe, and act upon an unques- 
tioned fact? If this is not true, then 
did he know and believe, when his mes- 
sage was written, that the people of 
Kansas make no such request as he 
attributes to them. 

Passing through this maze of old- 
fashioned heresy and new-fashioned 
Democracy, it is pleasant to find a com- 
mendable sentiment. It is this : " popu- 
lar sovereignty should be exercised here 
only through the ballot-box," and 
" through the instrumentality of estab- 
lished law" — a general proposition which 
none should deny. Republicans do not 
controvert it. On the contrary, that 
sovereignty having been conferred on the 
people of Kansas by an established law. 
Republicans, in that Territory and out 
of it, have insisted from the beginning 
that they should be protected in the en- 
joyment of the right. Its violation by 
the raid of March 30, 1855, when the 
established law was ignored, and the 
voice of Kansas stifled at the ballot-box, 
and the continued recognition, by the 
Executive and his agents, of the usurpa- 
tion then inaugurated, have been the 
grand causes of the political confusions 
of that Territory. It is that usurpa- 
tion, in all its ramifications, and not the 
established law, that the people there 
have resisted. I know .the apology for 
that interference ; I say apology — for 
no one can pretend that it would 



amount, if true, to anything like a 
justification. It was said, and is said, 
that it was to counteract the efforts of 
Eastern aid societies and their agents, 
who, it was alleged, had flooded and were 
flooding Kansas with emigrants, through 
whose votes they sought to shape its 
laws and institutions. Suppose this was 
done. So long as they sent there only 
bona fide settlers, what right, legal or 
moral, did they violate? Not even to 
this extent would legitimate evidence 
sustain the charge ; much less would it 
convict them of sending to that Terri- 
tory mere transient squatters, to inter- 
fere with the rights of actual residents. 
Why, sir, when the Kansas-Nebraska 
bill was pending in Congress, through 
all the long discussion upon it, it was a 
point conceded, that the peculiar institu- 
tion could never be established in either 
of those Territories. Passing over the 
admissions of distinguished friends of 
the measure in the Senate, I will rest 
the proof of this assertion upon the lan- 
guage of my colleague, [Mr. English.] 
In a speech made by him in favor of the 
bill, on the 9th day of May, 1854, he 
used these words : 

" I have said that in my opinion the people of 
these Territories will never adopt the institution 
of Slavery ; and I have yet to hear a member 
of Congress, of either House, express a contrary 
opinion." 

Sir, what was such language, in sub- 
stance uttered and reiterated by many 
from the South as well as from the 
North, but an invitation and a license to 
the whole North to go there and settle 
and establish their own institutions'? 
And if they accepted the invitation, and 
rushed in by thousands as soon as Kan- 
sas was opened to them, what right, ex- 
press or implied, was interfered with 1 
Was there a law providing that emi- 
grants to a new Territory should go soli- 
tary and alone, and that no more than a 
given number should enter it within a 
given time 1 If not, then if it were true 
that a million of New England emigrants 
stood upon the Kansas line and poured 
themselves into it the first moment it 
was open to emigration, it was no wrong 
to anybody. 

I come back now to this charge of re- 



10 



bellion. Is it well founded? To settle 
that questio!! c>rrectly, we must deter- 
mine one preliminary, namely : what is 
the governing power of Kansas 1 Hap- 
pily, so far as the President and his 
supporters are concerned, this question 
is conehisively settled by an authority 
which he says is the highest known to 
our laws, and that, too, in a deeision 
which he and they most heartily approve. 
Once, there was much noise and confu- 
sion about popular sovereignty as appli- 
cable to Territories. Once, a portion 
of the President's friends denied or 
doubted the right of Congress to legis- 
late for them. Their theory seemed to 
be, that the people of a Territory, like 
those of a State, were sovereign ; and 
that Congress had not constitutional 
power to interfere with that sovereignty 
in either case. The Supreme Court, in 
the famous Dred Scott dcciiijon, set that 
to rest. They decided, in substance, 
(indeed, it was no new doctrine in that 
court,) that Congress is the law-making 
power for all our common domain ; that 
the Federal Government is the govern- 
ing power of that domain. True, they 
said that Congress could not interfere 
with a certain institution there, not be- 
cause it was not tiic legitimate law- 
making authority, but because that in- 
stitution loas above all Icgrislation. But 
equally explicit were they in the doc- 
trine, that whatever laws may be enacted 
for a Territory, Congress may pass ; 
whatever power a Territorial Legisla- 
ture may have, is such as Congress 
gives it, and no more. That these 
points were ruled, or attempted to be 
ruled, in that celebrated case, is past 
dispute. It follows that, though Con- 
gress may grant to the people of a Ter- 
ritory the right of self-government, only 
a delegated right is conferred, which 
may at any time be resumed, no mat- 
ter how unconditional the grant be on 
its face ; for Congress cannot, if it 
would, yield, past reclamation, sover- 
eignty vested in it by the Constitution. 
It follows, too, that if Kansas has had 
a Government, it has been the Federal 
Congress, or such officials — Governors, 
judges, marshals, and legislators — as 



Congress may have designated and au- 
thorized to act as its agents. We all 
know what the fact is : C»)ngress pro- 
vided, by an organic act, for a Govern- 
ment through agents, prescribing for the 
people of that Territory, Governors, 
Secretaries, judges, and marshals, to be 
appointed by the Executive, and legisla- 
tors to be cliosen by themselves. 

Such having been and being the legal 
governing power of Kansas, when, and 
by whom, has it been repudiated or de- 
fied? When have the people there re- 
sisted the officers of Federal appoint- 
ment, or denied their authority ? I do 
not ask for individual acts of resistance 
to officials. Such have doubtless oc- 
curred there, as they have everywhere 
else. But no lawyer will pretend that 
such acts amount to rebellion. I go 
further, and ask, whenliave they denied 
the authority or resisted the enactments 
of any Legislature called into being by 
their voice? Remember, sir, they were 
licensed by the organic act to elect their 
own legislators, and were told that thus 
they should freely govern themselves. 
That license was at any time subject to 
Congressional modification or recall ; but 
so long as it remained, it was to them 
a sufficient warrant to deny the authority 
and resist the enactments of any pre- 
tended Legislature, not chosen by their 
votes ; and, though I do not profess to 
go into' details, the investigations of a 
prior Congress sufficiently prove that 
only when such a body of pretenders 
was thrust upon them by others, did 
they deny its authority, repudiate its 
enactments, and refuse to recognise the 
swarms of officers called into being. I 
have spoken of that first Legislature as 
a body of pretenders. It is a borrowed 
phrase, sir, borrowed from high Demo- 
cratic authority — none other than the 
State Sentinel, the central and leading 
organ of that jiarty in my own State, of 
the date of July 27, 18;")'). To avoid 
the charge of plagiarism, I quote the 
article in full : 

"Kansas. — The public vrero informed, a few 
days since, tluil the Kuiisiis Leginlature had 
chiinj^fd its pliice of meeting from Pawnee Vil- 
lage to Shawnee flitsion. Governor Ueeder, it 
seems, dissents from the usurpation of power in 



11 



the case in point, and refuses to meet that incen- 
diary body at its ne^r habitation, or to recognise 
its action as of legal authority. 

"Were we the Governor of Kansas, backed by 
the Administration, -we would treat that body 
of pretenders much as the Long Parliament was 
treated by Cromwell, and subject the outlaw 
leader to a test similar to that imposed on the 
weiik and unfortunate Charles I. In other words, 
as beheading is out of fashion, we would hang 
that fellow, Stringfellow, to the first tree that 
presented the proper convenience for a little 
episode of this peculiar character." 

Of course I am not responsible for 
the personalities of ^this editorial, and 
need not make them my own ; nor would 
I vouch for its entire truthfulness. One 
error is manifest. It speaks of Govern- 
or Reeder as being backed by the Ad- 
ministration, whereas he was simply 
backed out by it. 

But to return : I have shown that 
there were but two possible legislative 
bodies to whom the people of Kansas 
owed allegiance — Congress being one, 
and the other a Territorial Legislature 
of their own free choice. Congressional 
enactments they have not resisted ; a 
Legislature of their own choosing they 
never had, prior to the one which has 
but recently adjourned. Thus is the 
alleged key note of the message dis- 
posed of. The authority of Federal 
officials has been respected, even while 
those same officials have joined with the 
oppressors of Kansas, in attempting to 
subjugate its people. Only the power 
of those pretended officials, thrust upon 
them in shameless violation of their 
pledged rights, have the people of Kan- 
sas denied. That this has been their 
consistent course, is more manifest in 
view of the fact that the first Legislature 
of their own choice has been respected 
by them, as a legitimate Legislature 
should be ; and in view of the further 
fact, that all the Democratic Governors, 
save one, who have been sent to that 
Territory, and who went there breathing 
threatenings and slaughter against these 
same Free State men, speedily became 
such ardent sympathizers with them, that 
they were no longer fit repositories of 
Executive confidence. Like Saul, of 
olden time, they have all been suddenly 
and marvellously converted. Only thus 



far, however, does the comparison hold 
good. Divine Power struck down the 
persecuting Jew, that he might be con- 
verted; Executive power struck down 
these Governors, because of their con- 
version ! 

It is true that acts of violence have 
been committed by Free State men in 
Kansas, for which there is no apology, 
save the aggravation of lawlessness, un- 
der color of law, that provoked them. 
And yet the President, as I have said, 
utterly ignores all these insults and prov- 
ocations, though they constitute a cata- 
logue of crime such as has disgraced no 
other civilized land in the nineteenth 
century. He is growing old — perhaps 
forgetful. I propose to jog his memory 
on one or two matters too significant to 
be overlooked; to remind him, humble 
as I am, and impertinent as it may seem, 
that if he has not read the papers, the 
people have ; or, if he has forgotten the 
history of Kansas past, there are those 
into whose hearts the record has been 
burned too deep to be erased. I pass 
over all acts of individual violence as 
causes of complaint. These, on both 
sides, the President and his friends may 
make a matter of mutual set-off; though, 
for the balance over, there would be a 
heavy judgment against them. Still, it 
is not of the greatest moment that one 
man was butchered here, another hewed 
to pieces there, and another shot and 
scalped in another place. It is, perhaps, 
of little consequence that these bloody 
deeds became every-day occurrences in 
Kansas. Nor need we stop a moment to 
sympathize with friends of the butchered 
dead. Assassination and murders are not 
peculiar to Kansas. They have occurred 
elsewhere, and will occur again — ever 
attended, too, with scores of living bleed- 
ing hearts for every one that ceases to 
beat. Human life is, after all, far less 
precious than the rights we live to 
enjoy. 

Of one or two of these transactions, 
viewed in another light than as simple 
wrongs to persons, I shall have some- 
thing to say. As to all, let me add that, 
while such enormities are comparatively 
trifling, there is a fact connected with 



12 



them of tlie deepest significance ; and 
that is, that all the perpetrators of these 
atrocious deeds are still at large, and 
unwliijiped of justice. Nor to this hour 
has there heen an effort, which deserves 
the name, on the part of the ufficials of 
that Territory, to bring them to an ac- 
count ; excejit, ])erhaps, one on the part 
of Governor Gear}', which was success- 
fully thwarted by judicial interference. 
This fact, sir, constitutes one of the great 
wrongs of which the Free State men of 
Kansas justly complain, and against which 
(if yuu please to say so) they revolt. A 
murder, evtn if the victim be a helpless, 
unoftVnding cripple, (as was the case of 
Buffum,) or if he be scalped, as by the 
hand of a savage, (as was the earlier case 
of IIop[)e,) may be too small a matter 
to be remembered or noticed by the Pres- 
ident or his Kansas friends; but, sir, 
when tlie officers of the law become in- 
difterent to such trivial Avrongs ; when, 
by the conduct of Governors, marshals, 
judges, and district attorneys, the com- 
munity is advertised that such deeds are 
to go unj)unished, that, sir, is a wrong 
which he should not overlook — a wrong 
to tlie whole community, which, in one 
way or another, and in some way at all 
hazards, that comnmnity has a right to 
remedy. There is another fact, deserv- 
ing notice at this point. During the 
whole time when these wrongs were be- 
ing perpetrated, all the instrumentalities 
and machinery of justice Avere in the 
hands an<l under the control of what is 
now the Administration party. They 
made the Governors, judges, marshals, 
and public prosecutors, who pretended 
to administer the laws in that Territory. 
With them, during all that time, rested 
the power of removal ; and there it rests 
still. At their door, therefore, is piled 
up thi-} mountain of unavenged crimes. 
I comruc'ml tlu'se facts to the considera- 
tion of the venerable President, who so 
piteously exclaims for the return of the 
good old days of '"''reverence for law.^^ 
When he and his advisers shall have 
purged that Territory of all ofheials who 
overlook or wink at deeds which would 
disgrace siivage haunts, will it be time 
for liitn and them to arraign the freemen 



of Kansas for doing something to protect 
and defend themselves. 

And now, sir, for some examples of 
" loyalty ; " for, you know, the message 
tells us that " the dividing line in Kan- 
sas has been between those who are loyal 
to this Government, [the Territorial,] 
and those who have endeavored to de- 
stroy its existence by force." Who are 
meant by the latter class, we have al- 
ready seen. They are designated as the 
Republicans. Of course, the loyalists 
of the message are those who iiave op- 
posed these Republicans. From their 
ranks, choosing only their burning and 
shining lights, my examples shall be se- 
lected. You shall have, chiefly, speci- 
mens of oflicial loyalty and respect for 
the laws. I begin with the judiciary, 
not being confined, however, exclusively 
to judicial acts. 

Searching the history of Kansas, we 
find the Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court of that Territory an active par- 
ticipator in a public meeting, held at 
Leavenworth, on the 30th of April, l8oo; 
which meeting passed an order that " all 
persons who should, by the expression 
of Abolition sentiments, produce a dis- 
turbance to the quiet of the citizens, or 
dangi^'r to their domestic institutions, 
should be notified, and made to leave 
the Territory. ^^ The Kansas Herald^ 
an Administration organ, tells us that 
" the meeting was ably and eloquently 
addressed by Judge Lecorapte," and that 
its doings were harmonious. Tiiey ap- 
pointed a committee of ten, to carry out 
their orders. How faithfully that com- 
mittee endeavoreed to obey instructions, 
one William Phillips can testify. I mis- 
take, sir ; once he could have testified, 
but I remember now, he was afterwards 
shot down in his own house, by a band 
of " law-and-order men," under com- 
mand of one who is an ofiice-holder un- 
der the present Administration. liut 
this is a digression. I wish to show a 
specimen of reverence for law on the 
part of a judicial functionary, and not 
to trace its consequences. 

This was no judicial act ; but here is 
one that was. It is the charge of Chief 
Justice Lecomptc to the grand jury of 



13 



his court, delivered on the 5th day of 
May, 1866. It has been cited in this 
body before, by my worthy colleague, 
[Mr. Colfax,] and may be found in 
the JVational Intelligencer for June 6, 
1856. The Judge says : 

" Gentlemen, you are assembled to consider 
"whatever infringements of law may come under 
your notice, and bring in bills as your judgment 
may dictate against those whom you may find 
guilty of such infringements." * * * " You 
will take into consideration the cases of men 
who are dubbed Governors, Lieutenant Govern- 
ors, Secretiiries, and Treasurers, within this Ter- 
ritory, and will find bills in accordance with the 
following instructions : 

"This Territory was organized by an act of 
Congress, and, so far, its authority is from the 
United States. It has a Legislature, elected in 
pursuance of that organic act. This Legislature, 
being an instrument of Congress by which it 
governs the Territory, has passed laws. These 
laws, therefore, are of United States authority 
and making, and all that resist these laws resist 
the power and authority of the United States, 
and are therefore guilty of high treason. 

"Now, gentlemen, if you find that any persons 
have resisted these laws, then you must, under 
your oaths, find bills against such persons for 
high treason. If you find that no such resist- 
ance has been made, but that combinations have 
been formed for the purpose of resisting them, 
and individuals of influence and notoriety have 
been aiding and abetting in such combinations, 
then must you still find bills for constructive 
treason, as the courts have decided that, to con- 
stitute treason, the blow need not be struck, but 
only the intention be made evident." 

Sir, since the day when the infamous 
Jeffreys sent Algernon Sydney to the 
block for constructive treason, so mon- 
strous a doctrine as this charge enunci- 
ated, has not emanated from the bench 
of any Christian country — a doctrine 
which would have made any man who 
resisted a tax gatherer in Kansas, guilty 
of high treason ! Nay^ more and worse, 
which declared that not the act, but an in- 
tent to do the actj constituted the crime ! 
We all know the result. Scores of Free 
State men were indicted, arrested, and 
confined in jail — Judge Lecompte, for 
months, refusing every offer of bail. 
Plenty of officers could be found to ar- 
rest and incarcerate such men on the 
shortest notice. This was done on al- 
leged indictments, which a Democratic 
Senator and able lawyer [Mr. Pugh] 
pronounced defective in both substance 
and formt And while this solemn mock- 



ery was going on, boasting assassins, 
with the blood stains yet upon their 
hands, went at large and undisturbed. 

This calls up another judicial reminis- 
cence. It begins with one of the chival- 
ric deeds of the Kickapoo Rangers, on 
the 15th September, 1866, which I must 
read, as it is narrated in the " History 
of Governor Geary's Administration in 
Kansas," prepared by his private secre- 
tary. Dr. John H. Gihon. I read from 
page 167 of that work : 

" Six men of this detachment, (Kickapoo Ran- 
gers,) when within a few miles of Lecompton, 
halted by a field, where a poor, inoffensive, lame 
man, named David C. Bufi"um, was at work. 
They entered the field, and after robbing him of 
his horses, one of them shot him in the abdomen, 
from which wound he soon after died. The mur- 
derer also carried awaj' a pony belonging to a 
young girl, the daughter of a Mr. Thom, residing 
in the neighborhood. Almost immediately after 
the commission of this wanton crime. Governor 
Geary, accompanied by Judge Cato, arrived upon 
the spot, and found the wounded man weltering 
in his blood. Although suffering the most in- 
tense agony, he was sensible of his condition, 
and perfectly mindful of the circumstances that 
had transpired. Judge Cato, by the direction of 
the Governor, took an affidavit of the unfortunate 
man's dying declarations. Writhing in agony, 
the cold sweat drops standing upon his forehead, 
with his expiring breath he exclaimed, ' Oh, this 
was a most unprovoked, horrid murder 1 They 
asked me for my horses, and I plead with them 
not to take them. I told them that I was a crip- 
ple, a poor, lame man ; that I had an aged father, 
a deaf and dumb brother, and two sisters, all 
depending on me for a living, and my horses 
were all I had with which to procure it. One of 
them said I was a God d — d Abolitionist, and 
seizing me by the shoulder with one hand, he 
shot me with a pistol that he held in the other. 
I am dying; but my blood will cry to Heaven for 
vengeance, and this horrible deed will not go 
unpunished.'" * * * "The Governor was 
affected to tears. He had been on many a battle 
field, and familiar with suffering and death, but, 
says he, 'I never witnessed a scene that filled my 
mind with so much horror.' There was a pecu- 
liar significance in the looks and words of that 
dying man, that I never can forget; for they 
seemed to tell me, that I could not rest until I 
brought his murderer to justice, and I resolved 
that no means in my power should bo spared to 
discover, arrest, and punish the author of that 
most villainous butchery." 

The Governor went to work in earnest. 
He caused process to be issued, and of- 
fered a large reward on his own account, 
for the arrest of the murderer. The re- 
sult was, the guilty man was discovered, 
arrested, indicted for murder in the first 



M 



degree, and committed to await his trial. 
The proof on which he was committed, 
says tliis same work, " dearly and posi- 
tively established that he left the ranks ; 
that he was absent lon;j: enough to com- 
mit tlie crimes alleged ; that he was seen 
to take Hufl'iim by the shoulder with one 
hand, and to shoot him with the other, 
calling him, as the dying man testified, 
a d — d Abolitionist, and that he was in 
possession of the stolen horses." What 
subsequently became of him, shall ap- 
pear from a dispatch of Colonel H. T. 
Titus to Gov. Geary, which I will read : 

Lkcomi'Ton, Xoieviber 21, lfi5C. 

Sir : I have tlu' honor to state that, during your 
recent absence from this place, a writ of kaicas 
eorpxu, issued by Cliief Justice Lecouipte, was 
served on uic, by which I was commanded to 
produce the body of Charles Hays before hiiu, 
with the cause of his detainer. That, in obedi- 
ence to the writ, I caused the body of Hays to be 
produced before Judge J^ecompte, and returned 
as the cau:>e of his detention tlie finding by tlie 
grand jury of a true bill of indictment against 
him for murder in the first degeee, committed 
upon the jierson of one David C. Butl'um ; together 
witli your warrant commanding tiie rearrest of 
said Hays, and his detention until liis discharge 
by a jury of his country, according to law. I 
have further to state, that Judge Lecomjite dis- 
charged the said Hays from my custody, not- 
withstanding my return, aud that he is now at 
large. 

I have the honor to remain your obedient ser- 
Tant, H. T. TITUS. 

His P^xcellency John W. GEAnv, 

Governor of Kansas Territory. 

What a sublime spectacle of " rever- 
ence for law ! " I would do this func- 
tionary no injustice. He had once before 
discharged this culprit on habeas corpus. 
I know his explanation. Not a witness 
on behalf of the prosecution was present 
at the examination. The judge was par- 
ticular to have them "'called;" but, 
being forty miles away, they did not 
happen to hear. Witnesses were exam- 
ined for the prisoner, to prove an alibi — 
the stereotyped defence of villains every- 
where — and, the district attorney con- 
senting tlierero, Hays was discharged on 
bail ! But I have nothing to do with 
the judge. My business is with the 
Executive; to show him how justice is 
administered in Kansas by men who hold 
their oflices at his will, and can be re- 
moved wlieuever he says the word. Re- 



member, too, that I am not now com- 
plaining of the murder of Buft'um ; but of 
that greater wrong done to the commu- 
nity, when the criminal was discharged, 
unpunished, and untried, by the very 
tribunal which should have exerted itself, 
as a matter of justice, to send him to 
the gallows. 

As specimen chapters from the judicial 
history of Kansas, these must suffice. 
If we look, now, to the acts of ministe- 
rial officers in that Territory, we shall 
find that they were sometimes marvel- 
lously thorough. I have before me two 
accounts of one transaction, strikingly 
illustrative of the zeal with which they 
prove their loyalty and reverence for 
law. These accounts I may publish, 
though they are too long to be read now. 
They are from the Lecompton Union and 
St. Louis Rcpublicntiy both then Admin- 
istration organs, and gave the Democratic 
version of what is known among the reb- 
els as "the sacking of Lawrence," on 
the 20th day of May, 1856. 

You may remember, Mr. Chairman, 
the outlines of that patriotic demonstra- 
tion. The marshal had been there to 
execute a writ. It is said that the per- 
son to be arrested, resisted. • The mar- 
shal, taking this to be the act of the 
whole town, summoned the rest of man- 
kinil to assist him. The people of Law- 
rence, astonished at his proclamation, 
assembled en masse, and by unanimous 
resolves informed the officer of his mis- 
take ; that they were ready to assist him 
in the execution of all legal process, and 
that they only awaited an opportunity to 
testify their fidelity to the laws of the 
country, the Constitution, and the Union. 
The marshal did not believe them. The 
posse had been called, and to the num- 
ber of eight hundred, armed with mus- 
kets, rilles, swords, and cannon, they 
came. He made his arrest, no one re- 
sisting him, and dismissed the posse. 
They were immediately resummpned to 
the assistance of Sheriff Jones. What 
they did under his chivalric lead, must 
be told in the words-of these Democratic 
organs. 

The editor of the Union, whonyas one 



15 



of the posse ^ and writes his narrative in 
camp, says : 

"Jones had a great many writs in tils hands, 
but could find no one against whom he held tu^;.j.\ 
He also had an order from the court to demand 
the surrender of their arms, field and side, and 
the demolition of the two presses and the Free 
State hotel, as nuisances. The arms were imme- 
diately demanded and surrendered, but very few 
could be found — four pieces of cannon, one two- 
pound howitzer, and four small pieces, and a few 
Sharpe's rifles. When they agreed to surrender, 
our men were marched down in front of the town, 
and one cannon planted upon their own battle- 
ments. Over the largest piece, commanding the 
Emigrant Ai,d hotel, was unfurled the stars and 
stripes, with this motto : 

" ' You Yankees tremble. 
And Abolitionists fall; 
Our motto is. 
Southern rights to all.' 

" The cannon were then brought out and thrown 
down in front of our lines. During this time, 
appeals were made to Sheriff Jones to save the 
Aid Society's hotel. This news reached the com- 
pany's ears, and was received with one universal 
cry of ' No, no ; blow it up ! blow it up ! We will 
not injure private property; but our motto is, 
Destruction to everything belonging bo the Aid 
Society. The court has declared it a nuisance, 
and we will destroy it.' 

"About thi^ time, a banner was seen fluttering 
in the breeze over the office of the Herald of Free- 
dom. Its color was blood red, with a lone star 
in the centre, and South Carolina above. This 
banner was placed there by the Carolinians — 
Messrs. Wright and a Mr. Cross. The effect was 
tremendous. One tremendous and long-contin- 
ued shout burst from the ranks. Thus floated 
in triumph the banner of South Carolina— that 
single white star, so emblematic of her course in 
the earlj' history of our sectional disturbances. 
When every Southern State stood almost upon 
the verge of ceding their dearest rights to the 
North, South Carolina stood boldly out, the 
firm and unwavering advocate of Southern in- 
stitutions. 

"Thus floated victoriously the first banner of 
Southern rights over the Abolition town of Law- 
rence, unfurled by the noble sons of Carolina, 
and every whip of its folds seemed a death stroke 
to Beecher propagandism and the fanatics of the 
East. Oh! that its red folds could have been 
seen by every Southern eye! 

"Mr. Jones listened to the many entreaties, 
■ and finally replied, that it was beyond his power 
to do anything, and gave the occupants so long 
to remove all private property from it. He or- 
dered two companies into each printing office, to 
destroy the press. Both presses were broken up 
and thrown into the streets — the type thrown in 
the river, and all the material belonging to each 
oflice destroyed. After this was accomplished, 
and the private property removed from the hotel 
by the difterent companies, the cannon were 
brought in front of the house, and directed their 
destructive blows upoa Die walls ; the building 



caught on fi 
crash to the 
fortress, and 
Society a gc 

The ac 

als'(?\;'^o^^^' -^ - -uatements, 

that I niust /ble the Committee with 
one or two extracts. That paper says : 

"As soon as the deputy [marshal] Kudi posse 
returned with the prisoners, the troops were dis- 
missed by Col. Adle, acting for Major Donaldson, 
and were immediately summoned by him, for 
Sheriff Jones, to assist in carrying out an order 
of the United States court. The Emigrant Aid 
hotel and the two printing offices (the Herald of 
Freedom and Free State) had been indicted [not 
tried, convicted, or sentenced, mark you] for 
being nuisances, and the sheriff ordered to re- 
move them." 

Giving a statement of the demand and 
surrender of the arms of the Free State 
men, and of the notice given by the sheriff 
to the host of the hotel, to remove his 
furniture within two hours, which I pass 
over, the account proceeds : 

"Meanwhile the sheriff proceeded to demolish 
the two printing presses, which was effectually 
done in a very short time. Most of the type was 
thrown into Kansas river, and the cases and 
presses smashed. This was done with less ex- 
citement than could have been expected. Indeed, 
few excesses were commited. Private property 
was ordered to be respected, and it was respected. 
There was no liquor in the ranks, and that ac- 
counts for the coolness of our citizen soldiers. 
It is true that Robinson's house was burned ; but 
that was contrary to express orders." * * * 
"At the expiration of two hours, the artillery 
was drawn up in front of the public entrance of 
the hotel, and a dozen or fifteen shots fired into 
it, completely riddling the inside and breaking 
holes in the walls; and, after shaking the walls 
with two or three blasts, the structure was fired; 
and before the sun went down, all that remained 
of the Aid hotel was a solitary wall, holding 
itself up as a. warning to law-breakers, and seem- 
ing to say, 'look at me, and beware!'" 

Mark, sir, the peculiarities of this new 
mode of executing process. It was not 
a mere mob — a gathering of professed 
marauders in defiance of legal restraints 
and legal authorities; but, sir, it was 
professedly the instrument of the law — 
summoned, organized, directed, and dis- 
banded, by officialS'-Federal officials, too, 
Mr. Chairman, the agents of the then 
Administration ; for, as I have already 
shown, every Territorial oflScial is only 
a Federal agent. See, too, what exem- 
plary, thorough agents the Administra- 
tion had there to do their deeds of burn- 



16 



LIBRftRY OF COnSes? 



we consider how completely they vindi 
Gated the authorities, leaving only one 
smoked and blackened wall to say to all 
law-breakers, "look at me, and beware! " 
It was a thorough job, sir, which left 
only that dumb yet speaking monument 
of its completeness ! 

Sir, the President, about that time, 
was, I believe, in this country, and there- 
fore iiis knowledge of this transaction 
may fairly be presumed. Does any 
friend of h'\< remember that, in view of 
it, he wrung his hands, and cried out in 
the words of the beautiful apostrophe in 
his message : " Would that the respect 
for the laws of the land which so emi- 
nently distinguished the men of the past 
generation could be revived 1 " Or, was 
he as dumb then as lie is now, as to all 
wrongs committed by his " law-and-or- 
der " men in Kansas? 

Observe, again, this was no ordinary 
mob. If it were, I would pass it un- 
noticed ; for mobs, disgraceful and de- 
structive mobs, are not peculiar to Kan- 
sas. It was legalized laivlessncss — a 
specimen of that execution of the laws 
to which, according to the tone of the 
message, the freemen of Kansas were 
bound to submit. Viewed in this light, 
it becomes an enormity of the deepest 



dye. I need not 
the lawyers of t'li 
ii^>^t;4 as 




degree, and committed to . ,. 

The proof on which he w , ,. "' 

/i • I i. j' soldiers, 

says tins same work, cici J 

tivelv esUvblished that he r^^' ^"^ „ .- ^, 

that 'he was absent long e-"'^^^ ^^Af^', to be destroyea wuuuu. - . 

ttered not w.,..;„io« •.",., reJ; tl)-"^^i^^the question of fact. 

did it; but that was onlj,,. .iriile, when '^ ~ ' ' 



016 087 986 5 



Once more, and only once, I return to 
the message. On the 1st day of Decem- 
ber, 1857, Acting Governor Stanton 
summoned the Territorial Legislature to 
convene on the 7th of that month. Look- 
ing into a dispatch of his, contained in 
the message, we learn that he deemed 
this course necessary, to preserve the 
peace of the Territory. Turn now to 
the letter of the Secretary of State to 
General Denver, of the date of Decem- 
ber 11, and, strange to say, you will 
find that, for this very act, Governor 
Stanton was removed from office ! Will 
it be replied, the President did not know 
his motive in convening the Legislature? 
The answer is ready. He could have 
waited until he learned it. There was 
no necessity for such hot haste. 

Sir, I have done with the sickening 
record. The message has gone to the 
country. Let it go. I shall ask my 
constituents to read it. I hope it will 
be read by every voter in the land ; and 
when next the people in the North utter 
their voice at the ballot-box, my word 
for it, sir, they will pronounce a verdict 
upon its author, similar to that long 
since pronounced by posterity on those 
who libelled the patriots of Revolution- 
ary times. 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 

BDELL k RLANCHARD, PRINTERS. 
1858. 



UBRABV Of CONGRESS 



016 087 986 5 



